Before I begin, I just want to say that in general, we try to keep the focus of this blog on the positive and happy things going on in our lives. We try not to dwell on any behavior issues we're dealing with or things along those lines. But this story will give you an idea of what some of the more challenging times around here look like. That's ok though, because it's one heck of a funny story.
Thursday was mostly a great day for Daniel. He had fun at school and his teachers went out of their way to tell Amy that he had a great day. But for some reason after I got home, his attitude and behavior started to take a turn for the worse. Dinner was challenging; timeouts, threats, tears, anger, frustration... and Daniel didn't have fun either. But after we all made it through dinner, we watched a funny TV show together and things seemed to be recovering. After shower time, for some unknown reason (i.e. he's a stubborn 5-year-old), Daniel decided he would draw a line in the sand at putting his pajamas on.
As he stood in Leslie's doorway in his underwear, whining and repeating that he would never put his pajamas on, I finally had had enough. I told him he needed to put them on by the time we put Leslie down, or we wouldn't be reading any books or doing anything with him after she went to bed. I guess he didn't think that was a very good idea because he full on screamed at me. Primal child rage scream. I immediately stood up, picked him up and carried him to his room. I was a little angry at this point (ok... maybe more than a little). I set him down and grabbed his stuffed animals off of his bed. His precious buddies. I told him that if his behavior and attitude didn't improve, he wouldn't be getting them back that evening.
Now, I should mention that he has had a loose tooth for almost a week at this point. He noticed it Sunday morning and we had been checking it every day to see how loose it was.
So, stuffed animals in hand, I turned to leave his room. The act of taking his 'buddies' apparently made his brain go into full shut down as he screamed and lunged for me. I didn't realize it, but he was attempting to bite me - I seriously can't even remember that last time he tried to bite. What actually happened was he got a mouthful of my pants and as I stepped away, I ripped his tooth out of his mouth.
Screaming, crying, blood everywhere. And me feeling pretty horrible about the whole thing. But, I couldn't help but tell him as I turned around and realized what happened "And that's why you don't bite!" (For you Arrested Development fans out there - "And that's why you always leave a note!").
It took about 15 minutes to get him calmed down, get the bleeding to stop, and for some semblance of rational thought to return. He was pretty upset at having lost the tooth. We eventually went and showed Mommy and Leslie. After putting Leslie to bed, we talked about the Tooth Fairy.
At first he didn't want the Tooth Fairy to come at all, but after talking about it for a while, he settled on leaving his tooth on his bookshelf rather than under his pillow. He even wrote her a short note and let us take some pictures of him.
On Friday, Amy had one of her friends over for a little while. When she asked Daniel how he lost his tooth, he said, "I don't want to talk about it."
A couple days later now, I think we're all over the trauma of the event. It was certainly far from the way I imagined my first child losing his first tooth. But, it sure makes for a good story!
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